The Fairmont Pacific Rim consists of seven underground parkade levels and a 48-storey reinforced concrete tower, providing 377 hotel rooms and 175 luxury residential suites, along with quality grade amenities for the hotel and residence including a spa, fitness centre, rooftop pool, and conference facilities. Typical floor plates on this building were 18,000 ft2 with 400 tendons and 26,240’ (8,000 m) of post-tensioning strand on each floor.

Project type:
Mixed-use (hotel and residential)
Client:
Westbank Project Corp. and Peterson Group.
Architect:
James KM Cheng Architect Inc.
Contractor:
299 Burrard Development Inc.
Location:
Vancouver, BC
Services:
Construction management
Construction duration:
40 months
Completion date:
2010
Construction value:
$255 million
Project size:
1,122,782 sqft /

Challenges / solutions

The team needed to obtain a typical one-week floor cycle, which was accomplished through the use of a formwork table that was flown into position at the start of every week and coordinated with all subtrades. This included rebar, mechanical, and electrical subcontractors to ensure all reinforcing was in place along with all inserts and box outs required for future mechanical and electrical installations.

The project’s fast-track approach also meant high-quality interior and exterior finishes required completion under tight time constraints. Procurement leads were assigned necessary materials and delivery dates, then suppliers/vendors were sourced to meet required quality and delivery dates to maintain the project schedule.

Additional challenge related to the design process whereby the design was a progressive design providing details as the construction moved forward in order to obtain the overall schedule. This required additional detailed coordination and document control to ensure that the “just in time” design documents were delivered and incorporated into the fast-tracked construction process and execution.